“Negation use” notice!

[tuboludo]

With this sentence Word is giving me a “Negation use” notice. Why is that I wonder?

“Not that it wasn’t nice to get this sort of attention.”

Taken from this paragraph if that helps to clarify anything:

In the following days something unusual happened to Kris. He had been feeling sad of what he had done to Robbie and more and more felt the urge to nurture him. Suddenly Robbie had turned into the cutest thing he had ever known and he just wanted to cuddle and hold him all the time. Robbie was somewhat overwhelmed by all this attention Kris was giving him. Not that it wasn’t nice to get this sort of attention, but Robbie felt uncomfortable with it at first and then eventually he got used to it.

[Ecurb]

Double negatives create an emphasis sometimes missing from a simple declarative sentence. Jane Austen used them, so they must be OK.

Nonetheless, writers should avoid double negatives unless the writers are sure they add something to the sentence. In your case, I WOULD like the double negative, but when a third negative ("uncomfortable") is added to the sentence, it becomes just a tiny bit awkward. Perhaps, "It was nice to get this sort of attention, but Robbie felt uncomfortable with it at first...." Either is correct, however. A good practice is to sound out the positive alternative when you write a double negative, and only use the double negative if it really sounds better.

[tuboludo]

Thansk Ecurb. Good rule!